The Exchange Rate Rip-Off

Most people are unaware of how expensive exchange rates can be. The World Bank sets rates each day. These are what we see on the Internet. Everyone charges higher rates than these so they can make money. The question is how much higher. Exchange places at the airports are the worst. You could pay as much as 25% higher than the World Bank Rate. That means a Euro rate of 1 Euro costing you $1.35 would really cost you $1.69 or $.34 cents more on every dollar you spend. Banks are the lowest buteir rates vary a lot. Shop around. Banks that don’t stock foreign currency will charge their suppliers rate plus add their own on or charge a flat fee.

On top of that many credit cards charge a fee onto of their inflated rates. Shop around again. There are credit cards that do not charge fees but they will inflate rates. If you are moving very large amounts of money like to buy a home beware! 100,000 euro purchase would, at the above rates, cost you $169,00. That is $34,000 over the World Bank Rate. Their are brokers in the UK that will give you World Bank Rates for large amounts of exchange and NO fees. You send them dollars and they place Euros into your foreign bank account.